[DSH]

Priests can be laicized for serious offenses. He should have been given a choice between being defrocked or spending the rest of his life in a very strict monastery.

Or, you know, prison. Why not prison?

Real "whore of Babylon" stuff, this is.

[vladimir998]

“Or, you know, prison. Why not prison?”

He was in prison.

[Campion]

Are you suggesting that the church build prisons for wayward priests, and put them there? (The civil law would consider that kidnapping, a felony, BTW.)

Prison is the state's responsibility.

That having been said, priests who molest children should be forcibly reduced to the lay state, or barring that, should spend the rest of their life in some sort of monastery or other job where (a) they have no contact with children; and (b) aren't responsible for teaching anyone, even adults.

(That's, of course, *after* any relevant prison time, not instead of it.)

[NRx]

We are discussing the church’s response, not the state’s. If you want prison go to Caesar.